Papillon Bleu

Sparkman & Stephens 34

    "This is one of the most recent designs from the Stephens' drawing board for series production in G.R.P." Commenting on the design Olin Stephens says: "We hope and believe that the S. & S. 34 will make a good all-round boat, so as to demonstrate in a fairly small package that a good boat for offshore racing will be also a good boat for cruising".

    Cruising and ocean racing have been linked since the first R.O.R.C. ocean race, the Fastnet in 1925, when the seven starters were, of course, cruising yachts of the period. Over the years since then yachts have been designed and built, purporting to be solely for ocean racing, but mostly making varying concessions to cruising sailing, and these have come to be described as "cruiser / racers". This type was, with the introduction of G.R.P. and series production, gradually developed into a very refined product of which the S. & S. 34 is an excellent example.

    The Galley is neat and functional and the navigator has his own corner, but may complain that the chart table is not full size, tough!. The forecabin has a split double berth which lifts to give access to bins which are useful for cruising inventory.
 

 
    The isometric hull lines, elevation and plan give a very good skeleton shape of the hull, the canoe body is drawn well out into the after end, the forebody shallow with a pinched-in deck line in plan view, throwing the maximum beam well aft of amidships. The displacement is moderate at a ratio of 315, the fin is most interesting in that compared to other Sparkman and Stephens' designs the leading edge profile is more pronounced, especially in way of the toe.
Modified from original text, 1976.